Just saw Captain Phillips on cable. If that movie and Tom Hanks don’t get Oscars then Oscars are meaningless. It was an outstanding movie, literally edge of your seat. And the thing that surprised me was that it took a pretty balanced approach. It wasn’t “god bless America and damn those third world barbarians”. Although it would have been nice to delve a little more into why Somalis resort to piracy, still it was mentioned, and that’s a good thing.

I enjoyed it too. I couldn’t stop wondering why merchant ships can’t don’t have a security person and weapons sufficient to repel the average attack of some criminals in skiffs with a flipping ladder that barely can be attached to the ship. Seeing that the human beings and cargo are worth so much and so vulnerable in many other bad spots on the seas. Are the companies that irresponsible and cheap or is it some antiquated high seas law? I liked the interview with the real Captain in the extra’s.

I enjoyed it too. I couldn’t stop wondering why merchant ships can’t don’t have a security person and weapons sufficient to repel the average attack of some criminals in skiffs with a flipping ladder that barely can be attached to the ship. Seeing that the human beings and cargo are worth so much and so vulnerable in many other bad spots on the seas. Are the companies that irresponsible and cheap or is it some antiquated high seas law? I liked the interview with the real Captain in the extra’s.

I think they are increasing security. It’s just that they were blindsided by the more aggressive tactics of the pirates. It is unlikely that they are just too cheap to put controls in. A disabled ship and lost cargo would cost them a lot more than security measures.

I was on a small cruise ship in the Indian Ocean last year. It had coils of razor wire all around the ship and several armed sharpshooters on board. There were no incidents but when an unidentified craft appeared on the horizon, the sharpshooters were at their stations with guns drawn. We were not in any of the areas where piracy incidents have taken place but they were prepared anyway.

Part of the reason they didn’t have better defenses was that merchant vessels were worried about escalating an arms race whereby pirates used bigger weapons and became more violent resulting in greater casualties. After watching the movie it seems like a silly argument since these pirates are not that we’ll funded. I would think a few security men with RPGs would be able to repel most pirates

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For every complex problem there is a solution that is simple, obvious,.... and just plain wrong